I've recently started thinking about teaching English in the Czech Republic (and perhaps elsewhere) and thank Buddha I've found this site--the postings have given me a lot of good info. I had a couple questions/concerns I'm hoping some experienced teachers will help me with....

-How valuable is having the CELTA or Trinity certifications compared to the others? Is it worth the investment--especially, perhaps, for an American? Are North Americans starting to have problems getting good employment in former Central European countries like CZ or Poland?

-I'd eventually (not right away for my training but definitely within 6 weeks or so) want to bring my dog along. There's already been a discussion on this site re the technicalities involved in bringing a pet over, but I'm curious about living over there with pets in general. Good attitude towards dogs? Is it difficult to find housing, say a room in a pet friendly house in, say, Prague, Brno, etc?

I'm not going over there with the "backpacker" mentality (if that still exists) but rather for the professional (and cultural of course) experience, so not really in it for the money per se.

Anyway, I'd really appreciate any views/advice/opinions from those who've already tread this path.

(Since it might be relevant regarding getting good teaching jobs as an American in the EU: I have a BA in English (and Philosophy) and 5 semesters of teaching as a grad student TA.)

Prague's got a lot of teacher training centres - employers in the CZ are fairly well-aware of the 'generic' certifications. I don't think that the name brands are necessarily given priority by most employers.

The CZ is quite dog-friendly - you shouldn't have much difficulty finding a place to live with your dog. Actually, the bigger difficulty may be your airline transfer......you need to also check on the airline websites for the requirements for passing through London or Frankfort, or wherever you may have a connecting flight.
As far as the CZ, the last time I checked, up to date vaccinations and standard health cert for the dog were the only requirements (and translation was not required at that time), but you should be able to find out from whatever airline your dog would be arriving on.

Thanks for your reply. In case anyone else reads this and needs info about travelling with pets, pettravel.com has good info and links and, for European travel, the Europa Animal Health and Welfare site has the pertinent info (just follow the relevant links).

I can't help much concerning your first question since I've been out fo CZ for a few years, but I can offer some advice concerning your dog.

When we moved to CZ 10 years ago, we were told we just needed the regular certificate and everything to take our cat in, and that at the airport a vet would physically examine the cat and that would be it. We flew in with some friends that had been there for about a year already, and he proceeded to try to tell the customs agent (in beginners Czech) that we had a cat. He looked at us strangly and said to wait. About 45 mins a vet showed up, who spoke some English, walked up to us and said, "Where's the duck?" Duck? "No, we have a cat." "Oh a cat!" He looked inside the cage and saw it was a cat and sent us through. Seems our friend tried to use the word Kacka for cat, which it similar to Kachna which means duck. Fun. Anyway, all that to say, once upon a time it was fairly easy to get your pet in.

Fast forward to this past January. My husband and I recently moved to Latvia after 3 years in the US after CZ. We were also planning on bringing our cat (different cat) with us. We researched everything. Websites, airline sites, embassy sites, everything, and we were told, fine, just vet certificate, some shots, and the normal stuff. The airline told us (thankfully) to call back 24hrs before our flight to confirm our cat on it (he was going in the cabin). We called, and were asked a ton of questions we knew nothing about, but the biggest one was if the cat was tatooed or microchipped. Why would he be? They told us there was no way we could bring our cat in without this. This was all news to us, and to our vet in rural small town America. We even called the embassy to ask about this and they said yes, that's true. So, our cat is still in the US.

Why does this apply to you? This is a new EU rule. No domestic animals can come in unless they're tatooed or microchipped with some number you get from a registry which will link the animal back to your home address. We're going back this summer for 2 months and will investigate further so we can bring Simon with us in August, but be sure to do all your homework. (When we asked the embassy & airline why this wasn'ton their sites, they said they hadn't had time to update them, even though this had obviously been a rule for quite sometime.) Ask questions over and over again. Hope it helps!

There's an international microchip that corresponds to a 'passport' for all EU member countries. It's easy to get your pet microchipped in North America - but be sure that it is the Eurocompatible chip. I think it's called ISO.....my dog's got an appointment for the chip to be inserted next month. However, current CR requirements still don't specify that the chip is mandatory - but it won't hurt to have it!